Okay this is not me trying to go off on how Nothing Was the Same is a better album than Take Care, because art criticism has now become obsolete to me. Instead, I am going to give praise & share my love to Drake’s third studio album, but if along the way I imply that his sophomore effort is inferior, then so be it.
I was 14 years old when Nothing Was the Same was released, my second year in high school. At the time I thought that 5 AM in Toronto was the hardest shit I’ve ever listened to(I still do), that Drake had the hottest 2012(I still do), and that Take Care was going to be a classic forever(we’re still trying to figure this out). Going into the Fall of 2013, I was 85% listening to mainstream hip hop and 15% Fall Out Boy. It’s actually comedic to look back at my early teenage self, and analyze how fucking ignorant I was. I’d appreciate it if I was assured that I wasn’t the only young boy to think their music taste was “mature,” whatever that means. I surely didn’t understand music then as complexly as I do now, an example would be my perspective on Nothing Was the Same.
“I had to Derrick Rose the knee up before I got the re-up, yours truly The Boy” -furthest thing
“The Boy” is a different type of man. Here in 2019 I have the advantage of knowing Drake’s discography far after knowing what I did in 2013. I can understand that what That Boy was rapping, that boy listening had no chance of showing the level of appreciation I wish that he did. Around the time of release I was mostly hung up on the album’s intro, and how badly I wanted to emulate every aspect of Too Much into my own music. There’s just this level of sophistication packed into these 15 songs that made sophomore year Robby feel like he knew what it took to be a man. And I believe that this is the true reason as to why I possess a unique type of love for this record, the way I myself was undergoing changes and how Own It just happened to be the background music at the time. You can call it cheating, but it would be a much entertaining story if I give this album more credit than it’s due. Drake purposefully dropped From Time exactly when he did because youthful Robert was shedding the sociopathic child tendencies we’re all born with, and started developing a real personality; he knew I needed some help picking up the right traits.
“debate’s growing bout who they think the best now” -pound cake
Using my powers of memory, I can conclude that by 2014, I did not think Nothing Was the Same would ever be my favorite album of all time. So here I ask myself that why within 5 years, I’d be looking back laughing at myself for being so oblivious to what I was hearing. My leading theory is that at this instance in the hip hop game, things were about to take a turn, the sound of rap would take it’s next leap in this ever-evolving genre. Now obviously this is how popular music behaves, 2013 has a different silhouette than 2008 does, and 2018 would have it’s own outline in history. However, in my music listening career, this period signifies the first noticeable shift in sound that my ears will witness. So now as I exist in a completely different world of wavelengths, revisiting my first generation of rap favorites offers a much more nostalgic-intense experience, one to a much high accuracy than in returning to later mini-eras. Although what makes going back to this Drake album more profound than anything else, is how this record is essentially everything that I want from music, the exact definition of what I desire for my own art to feel like. If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m a little of a Drake fan. At least enough to be able to understand that Nothing Was the Same is probably the last time Drake can represent genuine humility in his music. There’s still that “underdog,” “got something to prove” atmosphere in every song(probably not Hold On, We’re Going Home) here, a motif I take seriously. I don’t know, maybe when I find my own cosmic pleasures in life, I’ll turn into a Views follower and think Pop Style is the real magnum opus.
“who you settling for, who better for you than the boy, huh?” -from time
I Hate The Real Me 